A DARK rhythm is pulsing through our society, one that is easy to dance to but dangerously hard to resist. It beats from radios, it streams endlessly on TikTok, it slides through Instagram reels, and it seeps into Facebook feeds.
It comes disguised as entertainment, creativity and modern “vibes,” but lurking beneath the catchy hooks and flashy visuals is something more perilous — an online culture that normalises, romanticises and glorifies drug use among our youth.
Zimbabwe is witnessing a disturbing moral devaluation, where intoxication is celebrated and virtue is dismissed as outdated.
Zvimba South legislator Taurai Dexter Malinganiso captured this growing national anxiety in Parliament when he declared with visible concern: “We are witnessing an alarming trend whereby certain individuals are openly promoting and normalising drug and substance abuse on social media.”
This is no exaggeration. Scroll through social media platforms today and you will find music videos, livestreams and influencer skits where drug use is presented as part of the youthful lifestyle — something thrilling and rebellious rather than destructive.
Bottles of cough syrup, rolled-up joints and suggestive lyrics are now symbols of fame and coolness.
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What used to be whispered in secrecy is now flaunted in daylight before thousands of viewers, including minors.
The artists behind such content are not just musicians or comedians anymore — they have become online idols, shaping language, behaviour and dreams.
The danger lies not only in the actions they portray, but in how effortlessly their followers imitate them. A teenage boy sees his favourite artist sipping Bron Cleer syrup on camera, and suddenly the act becomes fashionable.
A young girl sees influencers joking about marijuana use, and she learns that defiance is admirable if it brings attention.
That is how moral erosion begins — not through instant collapse, but through repetition of wrongs paraded as acceptable.
The tragedy deepens when these same artists take their glorification from virtual platforms to physical spaces.
There are reports of live events where substances are displayed or even distributed to fans.
“There are even recorded incidents where public figures have gone as far as distributing illegal substances to members of the public during live broadcasts,” Malinganiso lamented in Parliament.
“An artist gave a fan a marijuana plant, trivialising both the law and the grave consequences of substance abuse.”
Such behaviour makes a mockery of Zimbabwe’s legal and moral institutions and worse, it undermines the work being done by communities, churches and parents to curb addiction among young people.
But the cancer of glorified drug culture is not confined to online spaces. It has crept into traditional media — our radio airwaves, television programmes, and musical charts.
A casual listener cannot fail to notice how substance-themed lyrics dominate the playlists.
Songs laced with coarse words and reckless indulgence are enjoying rotational play on national stations, often under the excuse of popularity or creative expression.
Radio hosts, caught between promoting entertainment and maintaining ethics, often choose the path of least resistance — they simply mute or bleep out certain words, pretending censorship can repair what is rotten by design.
Yet even when the explicit reference is silenced, the message remains clear. The rhythm, the tone, the slang — they all carry the same smuggled intent.
If a song promotes drug use, censoring a single word does not neutralise its message.
One must ask: why play it at all if it violates our shared values? The answer, sadly, is profit — the blind pursuit of trends and ratings, even at the expense of the nation’s moral well-being.
The implications are devastating. On both digital and traditional platforms, we are feeding children a poisonous narrative. We are producing a generation that no longer sees vice as vice.
The consequences ripple far beyond the screen or the speaker — rising cases of drug and substance abuse among school-going youths, increasing dropout rates, fractured family structures, and a growing sense of despair among parents.
“If left unchecked,” warned Malinganiso, “this digital glorification of substance abuse will undo the gains made by the second republic and entrench a culture of indiscipline, lawlessness and moral decay among our youths.”
His words ring true because we are already witnessing it. Rehabilitation centres are filling up. Whole neighbourhoods are losing youth potential to drugs that were once confined to dark corners but are now casually brandished on camera.
To turn the tide against this destructive culture, we must confront the problem with both courage and coherence. It begins with accountability.
Social media platforms that profit from viral content should not escape responsibility for the impact of that content.
There must be structured co-operation between government regulators, local authorities and the platforms to monitor and remove material that glorifies drug abuse, especially when targeted at minors.
Laws against drug promotion and possession must extend their reach to the digital realm, with real consequences for offenders who use their online clout to fuel this crisis.
Freedom of expression cannot and should not be used as a cloak for the erosion of national morality.
At the community level, education and awareness must evolve.
Parents can no longer afford to be bystanders in the digital age; they must understand the spaces their children inhabit online.
Schools, churches and civic groups should actively teach media literacy and moral discernment, helping young people to decode the manipulation behind “viral” content.
If we train them to question what they consume, we equip them to resist blind imitation.
Radio stations and broadcasters must equally accept their share of responsibility.
They hold enormous power over the public psyche and should, therefore, pledge not just to entertain but to educate and protect.
It is far more honourable to lose one trending song than to lose an entire generation to addiction and despair.
Artists, too, must rediscover the sacred duty embedded in their craft.
Music has never merely been sound — it is influence, it is guidance, it is prophecy.
Instead of feeding our youth lyrical poison, artists should channel their creativity towards uplifting messages.
Our cultural renaissance requires creators who can express struggle without glorifying self-destruction and who can represent reality while inspiring hope.
Government and the private sector can support this through grants, awards and platforms that reward positive creativity over shock-inducing vulgarity.
The entertainment industry should not become a factory of chaos when it can be an engine of nation-building.
Ultimately, the fight against online drug glorification is not about policing art or silencing voices; it is about saving a generation from the slow violence of moral corrosion.
It is about reminding ourselves that every beat, every lyric, every reel shared contributes either to construction or destruction.
We must choose what kind of future we are composing — a symphony of purpose or a dirge of decay.
Influence must become a force for good, not a seductive tool for ruin. If we fail to act now, we risk raising a society that dances to its own downfall.